External Complaints Policy

1. Policy Statement

1.1     Future Care Capital (FCC) aims to provide a high-quality service that meets the highest expectations of the public, the charity’s beneficiaries, partners and stakeholders. It welcomes all constructive feedback on experiences of its activities, whether positive or negative and understands that, from time to time, external people or organisations may be dissatisfied or concerned with the way FCC or its staff have acted. FCC will respond, where necessary, by improving procedures, correcting mistakes, and learning from experience.

1.2     By making a complaint, any current, future engagement or financial relationship will not be held against the complainant – having made a complaint will not affect the outcome in terms of quality of service experience by the complainant.

2. Procedure

2.1     FCC has developed a procedure to deal with concerns or complaints, for example of impropriety, irregularity, misconduct, poor performance, or ineffectiveness in a timely and open way.

3. Who may raise a concern or complaint?

3.1     Anyone who is has a stake in FCC’s activities, including those with views about beneficiaries or the charity’s policy positions, press statements, investment activities, and performance.

4. Considerations before raising a complaint

4.1     Consider whether you have exhausted all reasonable steps to seek resolution for the matter you are considering complaining about.

What information should the concern/complaint contain?

  • Background information and context to the concern/complaint including dates and times of any incidents and the names of any people you are complaining about or who could provide evidence in support of your concern/complaint.
  • Any specific issues which you want to be addressed.
  • What outcome(s) you hope to achieve from the concern/complaints process.

4.2    Concerns or complaints should not be vexatious in nature, be repetitive, trivial, or untrue.

5. Addressing the complaint

5.1     As a preliminary step, the issue will be passed onto the appropriate individual for consideration. As a matter of course, the Chief Executive, the Head of Corporate Services and the Public Relations Manager will also be informed of the matter. This is to enable an internal log of issues to be recorded, to decide external statements we may feel are necessary to make and to be able to inform the press and stakeholders of our position.

5.2     Once a complaint has been made, the complainant will receive a written acknowledgment, usually within five working days.

5.3     The Complainant will receive a full written response to their complaint normally within 10 working days with a full explanation and details of how we propose to remedy the situation.

5.4     Where it is not possible to meet the above timescales, if for example staff are unavailable, we will write to you to explain and let you know when we are able to give you a full response.

6. Additional Information

6.1     If a complaint regards the Chief Executive, the same process will be followed, however, the Chair of FCC will be informed.

7. Making an Appeal

7.1     If a complainant is not satisfied with the outcome or response to their complaint, they may appeal in writing, outlining the reasons for their dissatisfaction.

7.2     This will be accepted if received within a maximum period of 10 working days.

7.3     A written acknowledgment will be made within five working days. A full response in writing will be made within ten working days.

7.4     If a complainant is still not satisfied with the outcome of their complaint, we will recommend to the complainant that they lodge their issue with the Charity Commission.

8. Confidentiality

8.1     By lodging a complaint, the complainant is consenting to the use of their information for FCC to respond to, and deal with their issue. We may also be obliged to pass on their information to others outside of the organisation if required to do so by law. Any information will be handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This document was last updated on 14th April 2022.